1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lighting fixtures and especially to a light dispersion system for luminaires.
In particular, the device of this invention is concerned with an improved light dispersion system for a fluorescent lighting fixture.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of gas discharge lamps, such as fluorescent tubes was common for lighting purposes, such as in offices, factories and homes. Frequently, those fluorescent lighting units were housed within recessed or surface mounted fixtures or otherwise integrated into the ceiling for aesthetic reasons and/or construction cost economy. It was conventional to shield the fluorescent tubes with a diffuser panel which usually consisted of translucent plastic material releasably held to the lighting fixture. The diffusers were formed in various shapes such as a dropped dish plastic diffuser which projected downwardly from the fixture. The function of the diffuser as previously used was almost exclusively limited to dispersing the emitted light by refraction and further to shield the fluorescent tube from the sight line.
A disadvantage of these prior art diffusers is that they did not utilize reflection or multireflection for spreading light. In essence, much of the light generated was not released from within the fixture and therefore the light output and field of illumination was not maximized.
A further deficiency of the prior art fluorescent fixtures was that the light emitted from the conventionally available tubes does not contain a uniform distribution of the color spectrum. Frequently areas illuminated by fluorescent lighting make it difficult to distinguish between the color of some objects and also provide a rather harsh or cold lighting effect because the spectrum lacks certain wave lengths such as red and orange. The present invention overcomes some of these shortcomings by providing capabilities for selectively incorporating chromatic filter elements to modify the resultant light emission.